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One pound of cannabis has 16 ounces or 453.592 grams to be exact.
Now more importantly, how much does a pound of weed cost?
According to cannabisbenchmarks.com U.S cannabis spot index, the average price per pound as of June 25th 2021 is $1605.
Cannabisbenchmarks.com also provides more specific numbers in the legal market in an average price report from 2020 shown below.
All in all, the price of a pound ranges from $700 - $5000 more or less depending on a number of factors including the location where it is being sold, the strain, supply/demand and the time of the year, and the quality of the bud and how it was grown.
So let's get to it!
Location
In US states where there is no medical or recreational cannabis program in place, and marijuana is still illegal, the prices tend to be higher, but not always.
420DC.com is a great resource and provides legal and illegal pound prices for a few states shown below.
Illinois
Legal medicinal: $2,000
Legal adult-use: $1,7000-2,000
Illicit medicinal: $1,700-2,000
Illicit adult-use: $1,637-1,785
California
Legal medicinal: $1,545-2,202
Legal adult-use: $1,332-1,875
Illicit medicinal: $1,604-$1,962
Illicit adult-use: $1,515-$1,962
Colorado
Legal medicinal: $1,584-3,000
Legal adult-use: $1,990-2,302
Illicit medicinal: $1,200-2,160
Illicit adult-use: $1,385-2,500
You can get a more in depth view of the cannabis market by looking at the cost of weed at a much smaller amount, a gram.
The state with the cheapest price per gram is Oregon at $7, and the states with the highest price per gram are Louisiana and North Dakota at $14.
Some on the list below are surprising!
Price per gram per state
Alabama - $12
Alaska - $11
Arizona - $11
Arkansas - $12
California - $9
Colorado - $9
Connecticut - $12
Delaware - $12
Florida - $11
Georgia - $11
Hawaii - $11
Idaho - $10
Illinois - $13
Indiana - $12
Iowa - $13
Kansas - $12
Kentucky - $12
Louisiana - $14
Maine - $10
Maryland - $13
Massachusetts - $12
Michigan - $10
Minnesota - $10
Mississippi - $12
Missouri - $13
Montana - $10
Nebraska - $11
Nevada - $10
New Hampshire - $12
New Jersey - $10
New Mexico - $12
New York - $10
North Carolina - $12
North Dakota - $14
Ohio - $12
Oklahoma - $12
Oregon - $7
Pennsylvania - $13
Rhode Island - $11
South Carolina - $12
South Dakota - $12
Tennessee - $12
Texas - $12
Utah - $10
Vermont - $12
Virginia - $13
Washington - $8
West Virginia - $13
Wisconsin - $12
Wyoming - $11
The average price of high quality cannabis ounces in the US are priced around $320.
Top 10 list below is shown from most expensive to cheapest for ounces as of late 2020.
High Quality Price per Ounce
District of Columbia - $591 oz
Illinois - $352 oz
Oklahoma - $342 oz
Connecticut - $332 oz
Texas - $323 oz
Florida - $298 oz
Arizona - $296 oz
Michigan - $289 oz
New Mexico - $283 oz
Nevada - $271 oz
With this in mind, the price of a pound is usually going to be higher in places where cannabis is illegal, and lower in places where it is both recreationally legal, medically legal, and most importantly where adults are allowed to cultivate marijuana legally.
Quality and Grow Method
The quality of the bud and the method of how the weed was grown is probably the biggest determining factor when it comes to the price of cannabis.
As a general rule, marijuana that is grown outdoors in the cheapest, marijuana that is grown indoors is the most expensive, and marijuana that is grown using a greenhouse is priced somewhere in between outdoor grown and indoor grown bud.
Outdoor
The reason outdoor flower is typically cheaper than greenhouse grown or indoor grown cannabis is because growers have no control over the environment when growing outdoors.
Growing outdoor plants is great in the sense that they produce a far higher yield than other grow methods, but they typically produce an overall lower quality end product.
Don't get it twisted, outdoor flower can still pack an amazing punch and have serious flavor and smell, but the majority of the time, the buds don't compare to greenhouse and indoor grown nugs.
Greenhouse
Greenhouse flower is usually a step or 2 higher quality than outdoor flower.
The reason for this is because greenhouse growers have more control over the environment and more importantly more control over watering because of the shelter that a greenhouse provides in keeping out an unexpected rain storm.
Greenhouse grown bud tends to have higher THC percentages than outdoor grown weed.
Indoor
Indoor flower is the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the top shelf magic of the cannabis flower world.
This is because, yup you guessed it, indoor growers have complete control over the environment the plants grow in, including temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, air flow and watering/nutrient feeding to name a few.
A good indoor grower with a pro set up and solid plant genetics can easily reach insane THC percentages of over 30% and produce some of the best tasting and best smelling buds you will ever experience!
Better quality equals higher prices, and indoor grown bud is definitely the most expensive.
Supply/Demand and Time of the Year
I grouped supply and demand and time of the year together because they are related.
At different times of the year the supply of weed is higher, which means the constantly high demand is easily met, and prices are lower.
On the opposite end of that, there are times of the year when the overall supply of weed is low, and the demand is still high, thus the prices are higher.
Supply tends to be very high from around Late October to February. This is mainly because outdoor and greenhouse growers who produce massive amounts of more affordable flower harvest their crops in October which are then ready to be sold shortly after drying and curing.
Prices slowly rise from March to May, and from June to September prices are at their highest.
As the lower priced outdoor and greenhouse bud supply shrinks from March to September, sellers and consumers must rely on indoor grown flower. Indoor grown cannabis tends to be more expensive because of the higher quality product that an indoor controlled environment produces, combined with the fact that they are trying to keep up with the constantly high demand and short supply of marijuana, and thus they scare away low price buyers and sell to high price buyers.
This cycle repeats itself every year.
During the summer in the height of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, demand for bud skyrocketed, and a contact of mine in south Florida saw prices for indoor pounds being sold for anywhere between $3800 to $5000.
Strains
Different strains of cannabis are known for certain attributes some of which include radical taste and smell, high thc percentages, massive yields, heavy resin producing buds, or high CBD to name a few.
The strains that have more of these sought after attributes tend to be more popular because their genetics produce an overall better product, and such strains are more expensive.
Some of the most popular strains that come with a higher price tag are:
Girl Scout Cookies
ZKittlez
Runtz
Wedding Cake
Birthday Cake
Pink Rozay
GMO Cookies
Kush Mints
Apple Fritter
Anything with "OG" in the name
These strains grown indoors by a master grower can carry a super hefty price tag!
Growers will take one of these popular strains or something equally good and breed it with another strain with great genetics that produces amazing characteristics, and create variations of popular strains with incredible results!
It seems like there is some new flavor coming out almost everyday!
"SO HOW MUCH DOES A POUND OF WEED COST!?"
Now that I've explained what factors have an impact on the price of a pound, here is an average of what a pound cost based on how it was grown.
Again, the price range varies depending on location, quality, strain, time of the year, and supply and demand.
Outdoor pound - $800 - $1600
Greenhouse pound - $1200 - $2800
Indoor pound - $2200 - $5000+
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